FILM LIST
the Irish coast and vainly tries to establish a happier life in London with a boy whom he has befriended. Edinburgh: EUFS I The Last Emperor( 15) (Bernardo Bertolucci. ltaly’China. 1987) John Lone. Peter O'Toole. Joan Chen. 162 mins. Peking. 1908. a three year-old boy ascends to the Imperial Throne to become the ‘Lord ofTen Thousand Years‘. A mere 59 years later. however. he dies a humble gardener in a China that is now the Maoist People's Republic. Multiple Oscar winning epic following the self-delusion and re-education of a man shaped by a superseded power structure. with exquisite production and cinematography justifying its length and occasional lack of pace. Glasgow: Odeon. Cinema; Edinburgh: Dominion; Central: Cannon; Strathclyde: Rialto. I Legal Eagles (PG) (Ivan Reitnam. US. 1986) Robert Redford. Debra Winger. Daryl Hannah. 116 mins. Over-plotted and somewhat bland romantic thriller embroilingdishy assistant DA Redford in a case of art fraud. Strathclyde: Odeon. Ayr. I Lolita ( 15) (Stanley Kubrick. UK. 1962) James Mason. Shelley Winters. Sue Lyon. 152 mins.G1um version ofthe Vladimir Nabokov novel in which hapless. middle-aged professor Mason becomes besotted by the charms ofprecocious nymphet Lyon. A strange blend of murder. lust and obsession with impressive moments and fine acting. Edinburgh: EUFS I Making Mr Right ( 15) (Susan Seidelman. US. 1987)Ann Magnuson. John Malkovich. Glenne Headly. 98 mins. Magnuson stars as the daffy but shrewd public relations consultant Frankie Stone. Sickened by the creep destroying her love life and with men in general she landswhat seems to be the perfect assignment.with no chance of romantic complications— she is to promote a highly sophisticated android called Ulysses. Naturally. it doesn’t quite work out that way in asmart. amusing and likeable mixture ofcomedy. romance and a kind of sly feminist Frankenstein storyline. delightfully performed and full of fizz. Glasgow: GFT I Manhattan ( 15) (Woody Allen. US. 1979) Woody Allen. Diane Keaton. Mariel Hemingway. 96 mins. Woody wanders through the female jungle ofNew York in search of a perfect soulmate after the demise of his marriage. Sublime comic delight with a soulful Gershwin score. Edinburgh: Cameo I Manon Des Sources (PG) (Claude Berri. France '1taly. 1986) Yves Montand. Daniel Auteuil. Emmanuelle Beart. 114 mins. Ten years after the demise ofJean De Florette. the Soubeyrans now run a prosperous carnation farm. However. Jean‘s daughter has now grown into an alluring young woman and. through the twists of unpredictable fate. is ableto wreak her revenge. Steering this epic rural saga towards the realms of Greek tragedy. Manon is a full and satisfying second half that explores the suffering of the guilty as they pay a crippling penance for man‘s greed and envy. A stirring achievement. Glasgow: GET. I Maurice ( 15) (James lvory. UK. 1987) James Wilby. Rupert Graves. Hugh Grant. 140 mins. Overlong but impeccably crafted screen version ofthe E. M. Foster novel in which a young Edwardian man slowly but movineg comes to terms with his homosexuality in the face of widespread ignorance. bigotry and the pressures of class to conform to some fanciful notion of normality. Edinburgh: Filmhouse I Metropolis(PG) (Fritz Lang adapted by Giorgio Moroder. Germany/US. 1926/ 1984) Gustav Frolich. Brigitte Helm. 93 mins. A re-edited and tinted version of Fritz Lang‘s early futuristic political parable with a new electro-mulch soundtrack by Giorgio Moroder. The original still retains a sense ofTeutonic
grandeur. with the love story now given greater emphasis than the theme tlfcltls‘s’ struggle. but it‘s a tough battle against the crushineg banal songs in the background. Glasgow: GFT
I Moonstruck (PG) (Norman Jewison. US. 1987) Cher. Nicolas Cage. ()ly mpia Dukakis. 1(X1mins. Thoroughly winning romantic comedy with Cher on Oscar-winning form as a dowdy young widow who accepts a proposal of marriage from a man she does not love in return for a safe and secure future. Asked to clear up some had blood with his young brother it is love at first sight when they meet : she undergoes a Cinderella-like transformation and is torn between the conflicting demands of her head and heart A delightful story. engagingly told. ()scars~ also went to Dukakis and John Patrick Shanicy"s rich script. Glasgow: Cannon Sauchiehall Street. Grosvenor; Edinburgh: Cannon: Strathclyde: Kelburne. Rialto.
I My Friend lvan Lapshin ( 15) (Alexei Gherman. USSR. 1982) llltlmins. Unreleased for four years and now in circulation thanks to glasnost. (iherman's film uses an unseen narrator who disctlsses his friend. the chiefofcriminal investigations in a small town. A disturbing portrait of the 1930s it uses innovative camerawork and a blend of pain and humour to illuminate the traumatic events of the country‘s past. Glasgow: GF'T
I My Life AS A Dog (PG) ( Lasse 1 ialstrom. Sweden. 1985) Anton Glanzelius. Manfred Server. Anki Liden. 101 mins. Wholly captivating rite of passage set in Sweden during the 195(ls. Twelve year-old lngemar copes with his mother's terminal illness and his family's general indifference to his boisterous spirits by indulging in a high fantasy life. including
the pretence that he is a dog. 'I‘erribletitle.
wonderful. unmissable film. Edinburgh: Filmhouse.
HOLLYWOOD SHUFFLE
Hollywood Shuffle (15) (Robert Townsend, US, 1987) Robert Townsend, Anne~Marie Johnson. Starletta Dupois. 81 mins. Hollywood Shuffle is probably the first credit card financed movie in the history of the medium. One can only applaud the brass-necked chutzpah of its young and clearly talented creator Robert Townsend, who has poured his own experiences as a black actor-comedian into a boisterous, fun-filled assault on racism in the cinema industry.
Townsend plays Bobby Taylor. an employee of the Winky Dinky Dog hot-dog emporium, whose day- dreaming waking hours are concentrated on fulfilling his burning desire to attain Hollywood stardom. His industrious sense of make-believe allows him to envisage success, wealth and acclaim in his chosen profession. The reality is a hard-fought struggle to secure a worthless role in the exploitation film Jivetime Jimmy's Revenge.
Caught in the trap of trying to conform to a white-dominated industry‘s view of black life he finds himself portraying the most degrading and mendacious of stereotypes. Finally, his self-respect conquers any other considerations and he quits, embracing the creed “We will never play Rambos until we stop playing Sambos’.
Made on the cheap, but bristling with energy and venom, Townsend's
1 l l
I New Babylon (U) (Grigori Kozintsev. Leonid Trauberg. USSR. 1929) 111 mins. ( ‘elebrated Soviet silent drama based on Marx's account ofthe 1871 Paris Commune; ‘a soupcon of Victor Hugo. a dash of the Ballet Russes. and a touch of 1). W. Griffith. all mixed togetherwith heroic panache and stylised gestures'. Glasgow; (til-'1'
I Out of Africa (PG) (Sydney Pollack. US. 1985) Meryl Streep. Robert Redford. Klaus Maria Brandeur. lol mins.'I‘rue story of the remarkable Karen Blixen and her lose affair with both the vast continent of Africa and enigmatic game hunter Denys 15inch Hatton. A carefully measured tragic romance suffused with images of awe-inspiring beauty and topped by another flawless performance front Strecp. Glasgow: GET
I The Pied Piper(15)s‘r(JiriBarta. Czechoslovakia. 1986) 57 mins. Definitely not for children. Barta‘s gothic. puppet visualisation of the famous folk talc has been hailed as a 'dazzling masterpiece' and a ‘grotesque nightmare set in a horrific half-dream. half-nightmare world. populated by models carved in medieval style from walnut'. Recommended to those who have savoured the Alchemists oft/1eSurrealscasons. Edinburgh: Filmhouse
I Platoon ( 15) (Oliver Stone. Us. 1986) Charlie Sheen. William Dafoe. Tom Berenger. 120 mins. Writer-veteran Stone's multiple Oscar-winner seeks to portray. as vividly as possible. the experience of the ordinary infantrymanon combat duty in Vietnam around the turn of 1%? ()8. The result is both harrowing. convincing and moving. Edinburgh: ()dcon.
I Plenty ( 15) (Fred Schepisi. US. 1985) Meryl Streep. Charles Dance. John (iielgud.1an McKellen. 12-1 mins. One woman‘s disillusion with her lot in
post-w ar Britain symbolises the malaise of a class-bound nation in decline. Weighty.
Iikeable scattershot satire hits the bullseye with satisfying regularity as he offers an exhausting catalogue of gags, parodies and spoofs. Like an anger-inspired Billy Liar, he takes shots at all aspects of the industry from a hilarious white-tutored school of black acting skit to a send-up of a TV sitcom, There‘s A Bat In My House. Not
every idea is fully realised and one must give demerits for the generally stereotypical view of gays and women ironically perpetrated by his film. However, Townsend has confronted an important issue with some wit, brevity and meagre resources; if the end result is farfrom perfect, one is still willing to forgive its many faults because it is pertinent, fresh, well-intentioned and frequently side~splitting.
(Allan Hunter)
literate and overly ambitious epic. but the characters are made to carry too emblematic a burden in the depicted slide into mediocrity. Edinburgh: EUFS I Prick Up Your Ears ( 18) (Stephen Frears. UK. 1987) Gary Oldman. Alfred Molina. Vanessa Redgrave. 11(1mins.Wickedly tart and funny biographical portrait ofthe seesaw relationship between playwright Joe ()rton and his lover Kenneth llalliwell. Highly recommended. Glasgow: GET I The Princess Bride (PG) (Rob Reiner. US. 1987) Cary Elwes. Robin Wright. Mandy Patinkin. Billy Crystal. 99mins. The princess in question is one Buttercup. chosen by the nasty Prince Humperdinck to be his bride; her heart. however. belongs to Westley. a farm boy who has gone off to make his fortune before marrying her. but has disappeared. The princess is kidnapped by a rather dodgy trio. which proves to be the cue forthe re-appearance of Westley. now become the Dread Pirate Roberts. and the beginning of a series of often very funny swashbuckling adventures before true love can finally prevail. William Goldman‘s heavily ironic. tongue-in-cheek fairytale is given a spirited treatment by the director ofoand By Me and an enthusiastic troupe. Glasgow: Cannon Sauchiehall Street; Strathclyde: Odeon Ayr. Odeon Kilmarnock. Rialto. Kelburne. I Repentance (PG) (Tengiz Abuladze. USSR. 1984) AvtandilMakharadze.1ya Ninidze. Merab Ninidze. 150 mins. In a small Georgian village. a local woman persistently desecrates the grave ofthe recently deceased and apparently beloved mayor: as soon as the family reburiesthe corpse she unearths it and deposits it in their garden. ()n trial. she claims that her actions were on behalf ofall the innocent victims to suffer under his despotic reign. An epic allegory condemning dictatorship and repression in all its forms. this international symbol of glasnost is a weighty blending of styles and ideas; sometimes imaginative. sometimes ponderous. decidedly overlong but always engrossing and thought-provoking. Edinburgh: Filmhousc I Richard Pryor- Live in Concert ( 18) (Jeff Margolis. US. 1979) 78 mins. The first and best of the Pryor concert movies. filmed before an audience in Long Beach as he discourses on sex. death and race in his inimitably frenetic and foul-mouthed style. Edinburgh: Filmhouse I Robocop ( 18) (Paul Verhoeven. US. 1987) Peter Weller. Nancy Allen. Ronny Cox. 103 mins. Slick and stomach-churningly violent futuristic thriller blending elements of Dirty Harry. Frankenstein and The Six Million Dollar Man. When diligent policeman Murphy is shot to pieces by vicious thugs. his remains are mechanically reconstructed into a hi-tech law enforcement officer but the human desire for revenge still beats beneath his mechanical exterior. Glasgow: Filmhouse. I A Room With A View (PG) (Jameslvory. UK. 1985) Helena Bonham Carter. Maggie Smith. Simon Callow. 117 mins. Crisply realised. near perfect evocation of the E. M. Forster novel in which an apparently delicate English rose blossoms into a passionate young woman aftcr ii romantic encounter in Florence. Sheer delight. Edinburgh: EUFS I Roxanne (PG) (Fred Schepisi. US. 1987) Steve Martin. Daryl Hannah. Shelley Duvall. 107 mins. Witty. tender and charming reworking of Cyrano (16’ Bergerac deploying a range ofcomedy techniques as fire chief Martin ofthe enormous proboscis copes with life and lovestruck romance. Glasgow: Grosvenor I Rumble Fish ( 18) (Francis Ford Coppola. US. 1983) Mickey Rourke. Dennis Hopper. Matt Dillon. 94 mins. Electrifying expressionist visuals grace an existentialist parable about the need to
The List 13 — 26 May 1988 25